Live at Penelope Street

Chris Cheek & Victor Prieto 'Live at Penelope Street' Victor Prieto (accordion, gaita bagpipe) Chris Cheek, tenor and soprano saxophones 1- Chating with Chris, by Victor Prieto 2- Shelter, by Chris Cheek 3- Camarada, by Mariano Gil. Arr, Victor Prieto 4- Nos Altos de Washington, by Victor Prieto 5- Rosa, by Victor Prieto 6- Backstage Interview Recorded on Dicember, 2008. New York. Produced by Chris Cheek, Victor Prieto and Cheekus Music. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Cheek, the son of a junior high school band director, began playing the alto sax at the age of 12. Chris played in a variety of local Jazz and Blues bands in the St. Louis area while attending Webster University. In 1988, on scholarship, he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied with Joe Viola and Hal Crook, eventually receiving a bachelors degree in performance. Chris moved to New York in 1992 and since then has played and recorded with a number of different groups including: Paul Motian's 'Electric Bebop Band', 'The Bloomdaddies', Charlie Haden's 'Liberation Music Orchestra', The Brian Blade Fellowship, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Luciana Souza, David Berkman, and Guillermo Klein's 'Los Guachos'. Chris has played in Japan, China, Russia, Canada, throughout much of Europe and the United States, with these and other bands. In addition to appearing on over 60 albums as a sideman, Chris has recorded 4 albums as a leader on Fresh Sound Records, 'I Wish I Knew', 'A Girl Named Joe', 'Vine', and most recently 'Blues Cruise', featuring Brad Mehldau. While he continues to be actively involved in a number of different musical projects, Chris plays regularly with his own band at various clubs in the U.S. and abroad. Accordionist and composer, Victor Prieto is revolutionizing the way that the accordion is played by creating new sounds and techniques for this instrument. His music embraces different tendencies that come from Jazz, Tango, Classical and Celtic Roots enriched with new rhythms and colors. He is the creator of a new technique for the accordion called "chord approach on both hands", which creates rich and elaborate harmonies. Victor Prieto was born in Orense (Spain) in 1975. At the age of nine encouraged by his mother Victor begun to play the accordion. He pursued his studies in Classical accordion at the Orense Conservatory (Spain), while taking harmony, arranging and improvisation classes at Estudio Escola de Musica (Santiago de Compostela, Spain). After receiving a scholarship by the highly respected Jazz school- Berklee College of Music- Victor decided to pursue the performance major under the direction of Joanne Brackeen. Victor is the first and only of his kind, to specialize and apply studies in Accordion at Berklee College of Music. During his stay at Berklee Victor becomes friends with one of his mentors, Oscar Stagnaro. In 2002 Victor moved to New York where he quickly established himself as one of the most prolific and versatile accordionists on the music and Jazz scenes. As a leader Victor has performed at many prestigious venues and events such as Berklee Performance Center, Lincoln Center, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Blue Note NY, New Jersey Performance Art Center, Three Rivers Musical Festival, Williamsburg Jazz Festival, Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center. Victor has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Jeff Ballard, Chris Cheek, Paquito D'Rivera, Regina Carter, Donny McCaslin, Lionel Louke among others and is involved in projects such as Pablo Aslan's Avantango, Emilio Solla's NY Jazz Tango Project, Alexis Cuadrado's Trio Iberico and Fernando Otero X Tango. He teaches Master Classes in Spain, Italy, Portugal, USA and has headed the jazz accordion studies at the Brooklyn Conservatory (2003 - 2004). He is a recipient of numerous awards and prizes for excellence in accordion performance and composition, among them are: the Creative Performer award from the Spanish Association of Artists and Performers, and the first prize at CMZK's Concourse of Composition (Argentina). Victor now lives in New York City dividing his time between performing, teaching and recording. He has recently introduced his new DVD, 'Chris Cheek and V. Prieto. Live at Penelope St.', Cheekus Music.

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Chris Cheek & Victor Prieto 'Live at Penelope Street' Victor Prieto (accordion, gaita bagpipe) Chris Cheek, tenor and soprano saxophones 1- Chating with Chris, by Victor Prieto 2- Shelter, by Chris Cheek 3- Camarada, by Mariano Gil. Arr, Victor Prieto 4- Nos Altos de Washington, by Victor Prieto 5- Rosa, by Victor Prieto 6- Backstage Interview Recorded on Dicember, 2008. New York. Produced by Chris Cheek, Victor Prieto and Cheekus Music. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Cheek, the son of a junior high school band director, began playing the alto sax at the age of 12. Chris played in a variety of local Jazz and Blues bands in the St. Louis area while attending Webster University. In 1988, on scholarship, he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied with Joe Viola and Hal Crook, eventually receiving a bachelors degree in performance. Chris moved to New York in 1992 and since then has played and recorded with a number of different groups including: Paul Motian's 'Electric Bebop Band', 'The Bloomdaddies', Charlie Haden's 'Liberation Music Orchestra', The Brian Blade Fellowship, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Luciana Souza, David Berkman, and Guillermo Klein's 'Los Guachos'. Chris has played in Japan, China, Russia, Canada, throughout much of Europe and the United States, with these and other bands. In addition to appearing on over 60 albums as a sideman, Chris has recorded 4 albums as a leader on Fresh Sound Records, 'I Wish I Knew', 'A Girl Named Joe', 'Vine', and most recently 'Blues Cruise', featuring Brad Mehldau. While he continues to be actively involved in a number of different musical projects, Chris plays regularly with his own band at various clubs in the U.S. and abroad. Accordionist and composer, Victor Prieto is revolutionizing the way that the accordion is played by creating new sounds and techniques for this instrument. His music embraces different tendencies that come from Jazz, Tango, Classical and Celtic Roots enriched with new rhythms and colors. He is the creator of a new technique for the accordion called "chord approach on both hands", which creates rich and elaborate harmonies. Victor Prieto was born in Orense (Spain) in 1975. At the age of nine encouraged by his mother Victor begun to play the accordion. He pursued his studies in Classical accordion at the Orense Conservatory (Spain), while taking harmony, arranging and improvisation classes at Estudio Escola de Musica (Santiago de Compostela, Spain). After receiving a scholarship by the highly respected Jazz school- Berklee College of Music- Victor decided to pursue the performance major under the direction of Joanne Brackeen. Victor is the first and only of his kind, to specialize and apply studies in Accordion at Berklee College of Music. During his stay at Berklee Victor becomes friends with one of his mentors, Oscar Stagnaro. In 2002 Victor moved to New York where he quickly established himself as one of the most prolific and versatile accordionists on the music and Jazz scenes. As a leader Victor has performed at many prestigious venues and events such as Berklee Performance Center, Lincoln Center, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Blue Note NY, New Jersey Performance Art Center, Three Rivers Musical Festival, Williamsburg Jazz Festival, Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center. Victor has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Jeff Ballard, Chris Cheek, Paquito D'Rivera, Regina Carter, Donny McCaslin, Lionel Louke among others and is involved in projects such as Pablo Aslan's Avantango, Emilio Solla's NY Jazz Tango Project, Alexis Cuadrado's Trio Iberico and Fernando Otero X Tango. He teaches Master Classes in Spain, Italy, Portugal, USA and has headed the jazz accordion studies at the Brooklyn Conservatory (2003 - 2004). He is a recipient of numerous awards and prizes for excellence in accordion performance and composition, among them are: the Creative Performer award from the Spanish Association of Artists and Performers, and the first prize at CMZK's Concourse of Composition (Argentina). Victor now lives in New York City dividing his time between performing, teaching and recording. He has recently introduced his new DVD, 'Chris Cheek and V. Prieto. Live at Penelope St.', Cheekus Music.